2012 Austin US Grand Prix

Team Shum (including Jacob from our “Junior Team”) were out in full force at the 2012 US Formula 1 Grand Prix. This was the the first USGP held since 2008, and the inaugural race held at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas.

Observation Tower over Turn 13

Kenny and Cindy got to Austin a week early for their sightseeing and culinary tour, while Jon, Jacob met up at the Houston airport and drove 2.5 hours to Austin.

A purpose-built model Formula 1 track, Circuit of the America is a beautiful track. It has excellent facility to comfortably accommodate almost 120,000 spectators on race day, grandstands that has great sight line to a large portion of the track, and of course fearsome Turns 4-7 complex that showcases the F1 machinery.

Our seats were at Turn 9 where we could see great action from Turn 6 up to Turn 8-9, the run down to the hairpin and the drag race on back straight.

These were prime seats for us to watch Hamilton caught up to Vettel, and pulled off his race winning pass on the back straight.

In addition to F1, we also watched all the support races, including Historic F1, Porsche Cup and Ferrari Challenge. (See we put Porsches before Ferraris :))

The track is also conveniently location right next to Lockhart, the “Barbecue Capital of Texas”. We hit three of the famous barbecue joints (Smitty’s Market, Kreuz, and Blacks) and they were all great!

We also had “Japanese Street Food” at East Side King (food truck by Top Chef / James Beard winner Paul Qui.) in Austin. We also spent an evening in San Antonio and saw the Alamo and dined at Luke Restaurant along the River Walk.